Democrats call on Lt. Gov. Ard to resign

COLUMBIA — South Carolina Democrats said Thursday that Lt. Gov. Ken Ard should immediately resign as his ethics case heads to a state grand jury and called on Republicans to stop working on backroom deals to replace him.

Three weeks ago, Ard paid the state Ethics Commission a $48,000 fine after being hit with 107 civil counts of using campaign cash for personal expenses. Those included a family vacation, iPads, a flat-screen television, clothes, meals and a trip to the SEC championship game last fall. He also had to pay $12,500 to cover the costs of the state ethics investigation and had to reimburse his campaign $12,000.

On Wednesday, Attorney General Alan Wilson referred questions about Ard's ethics investigation to the state grand jury.

The grand jury inquiry will distract Ard from his duties, state Democratic Party Chairman Dick Harpootlian said.

"It's time to give the people of South Carolina a break from this ongoing controversy, this ongoing distraction from getting the job done," Harpootlian said. "Quit. Go back to Florence. Get a lawyer. Deal with your legal problems. But let the state of South Carolina and the people of South Carolina move forward."

Ard "already admitted he did things wrong," Harpootlian said. "The only question now is whether those are criminal or not."

There were no signs Thursday that Ard was ready to resign and his spokeswoman and lawyer did not immediately respond to questions. On Wednesday, Ard said in a statement he would cooperate with the investigation. He also said he had requested that Wilson "refer my case for a full and complete investigation so that all of the facts in this matter can be determined."

But a spokesman for the attorney general's office said Ard's request was for a State Law Enforcement Division investigation and it came only after Ard's lawyer was told the case was heading to the grand jury.

An independent SLED investigation, however, would have delayed the grand jury taking up the case and those investigators would have worked without subpoena power. The grand jury would have SLED investigators using subpoena power as they handled the case.

Harpootlian is a former prosecutor and said Ard's statement is another example of Ard not telling the truth. "He's continuing to lie," Harpootlian said.

The grand jury meets secretly and doesn't announce when or where. It could take weeks or months to decide whether to issue a criminal indictment.

A criminal indictment could bring a suspension from office provided Gov. Nikki Haley gives an OK for that, according to state law. Ard's ethics violations are considered misdemeanors that can bring up to a $5,000 fine and a year in prison. If he is suspended, Ard would not draw the $46,545 annual salary his part-time position pays and would lose state benefits. Ard presides over the state Senate, casts deciding votes in ties and also runs the state Office on Aging.

An Ard resignation or suspension also would create a leadership scramble in the Senate. Harpootlian said Republicans are cutting backroom deals to pick an interim lieutenant governor and help Senate President Pro Tem Glenn McConnell avoid giving up his state Senate seat to take over. That also could touch off a Senate seat race.

Senators last mulled how that might play out in 2009, when Republican Gov. Mark Sanford faced calls for resignation, an ethics investigation and impeachment hearings after he revealed an extramarital affair with a woman from Argentina. McConnell drafted a letter then to resign the Senate's top position in case Sanford resigned or was removed so he could keep his seat and avoid becoming lieutenant governor. Rumblings ensued about who might serve as lieutenant governor.

Harpootlian sees a replay in the works.

"It's the worst case of political music chairs I've ever seen," Harpootlian said, with McConnell, a civil war re-enactor trying to save his seat.

"I assumed, wrongly I guess, that Glenn would be wanting to iron his Confederate uniform to get sworn in," Harpootlian said.

McConnell did not respond immediately to messages.

Republicans aren't having any discussion about Ard's potential departure, Senate Rules Committee Chairman Larry Martin said. "There only thing that has promoted a discussion about is when reporters have called us and asked us about it," the Pickens Republican said.

Republicans don't want to discuss it because "it seems so unseemly," Martin said. "We don't even like to talk about that among ourselves."

Meanwhile, John Crangle, the state director of the watchdog group Common Cause, said fuss is overblown because the constitution doesn't require replacement of the lieutenant governor if he resigns. It only requires that the president pro tempore takes on his short list of responsibilities.

Crangle argues South Carolina should be the first state in the nation to eliminate the lieutenant governor's position altogether. The state spends a $1 million a year on a position with duties senators can fulfill, he said.

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